The activity of Poles in Australia is most often associated with the achievements of Bronisław Malinowski and Paweł Edmund Strzelecki (to whom Mount Kosciuszko, the highest peak of the Great Dividing Range, owes its name). Their undoubted merits seem to overshadow other instances of our compatriots' presence on the Australian continent. Such is, for example, the story of the Polish Hill River settlement located in the south of the country, near the city of Adelaide, in the Clare Valley region known for wine growing. For over half a century Polish Hill River was the hub of Polish emigration and cultivation of Polish traditions. Traces of these events have survived up to now.

Emigration of Poles to Australia
Polish emigration to Australia is significantly different from the well-known 19th century waves of mass emigration to the United States or Brazil. Both its smaller scale and lower degree of organisation make it a little-known episode of Polish history. There was not an organized group of settlers and a guide to lead them, and the sheer distance to Australia meant that it was not the most attractive destination for potential emigrants.

The first Polish emigrants to Australia can be traced among German settlers, who started to emigrate there at the end of the 1830s. They were mainly Lutherans from Prussia and Pomerania who opposed the religious policy of Friedrich Wilhelm III. This emigration, originating on the border of the German and Polish ethnic areas, in later years began to reach deeper into the Prussian partition, into Silesia and Greater Poland. In 1856 Polish pioneers from the towns of Dąbrówka Wielkopolska and Zbąszynek voyaged from Hamburg to Adelaide in South Australia, from where they travelled to Sevenhill, about 130 km to the north. Sevenhill was a very young town at the time – it had been founded in 1850 by Jesuit missionaries from Austria, with the name referring to the location of Rome. The Polish colonists settled in the eastern part of town called Hill River, which since then has been known as Polish Hill River.

Father Leon Rogalski
Polish settlers coming to South Australia at once gathered around the Catholic parish. It was at their own initiative that the Polish priest Leon Rogalski (1830-1906) was brought to the village, and in the following years he became the driving force behind the development and consolidation of the Polish community. Father Rogalski arrived in Melbourne in March 1870. He was under 40 at the time, born in the village of Kupczyńce (now in the Tarnopol Oblast in Ukraine) and educated in Lviv. In 1861 he entered the Jesuit order in Stara Wieś. Before being sent to Australia he was a priest in Tarnopol, a parish administrator in Stara Wieś and a people's missionary in Łańcut.

Fr. Rogalski began his ministry in Sevenhill by getting to know his parishioners and visiting nearby villages, also inhabited by Poles. He visited the settlements of Tanunda, Mintaro and Clare and recorded 40 Polish families. His dynamic leadership made it possible for Polish emigrants to build their first church and school. The plot of land for the investment was donated by one of the colonists, Jan Nykiel. The works progressed very quickly and on 30 November 1871 there was a celebration of dedicating the St. Stanislaus Kostka chapel and blessing the adjoining school building. The church was a single-space building on a rectangular plan with a small porch, built of stone blocks. The painting of St. Stanislaus Kostka was most probably brought from Cracow by Fr. Rogalski; now it is housed in St. Aloysius Church in Sevenhill. Masses were held in Polish Hill River every Sunday and holiday and on the celebrations of patron saints of Poland.

Father Rogalski organised the religious, social and cultural life of the local community. The church school in 1884 was attended by 29 children, who learned reading, writing, arithmetic, Polish, music and singing. There was also a reading room, well stocked with Polish magazines and books. Father Rogalski strove to unite Polish immigrants around Sevenhill and turn the area into "Little Poland"

Fr. Rogalski began his ministry in Sevenhill by getting to know his parishioners and visiting nearby villages, also inhabited by Poles. He visited the settlements of Tanunda, Mintaro and Clare and recorded 40 Polish families. His dynamic leadership made it possible for Polish emigrants to build their first church and school. The plot of land for the investment was donated by one of the colonists, Jan Nykiel. The works progressed very quickly and on 30 November 1871 there was a celebration of dedicating the St. Stanislaus Kostka chapel and blessing the adjoining school building. The church was a single-space building on a rectangular plan with a small porch, built of stone blocks. The painting of St. Stanislaus Kostka was most probably brought from Cracow by Fr. Rogalski; now it is housed in St. Aloysius Church in Sevenhill. Masses were held in Polish Hill River every Sunday and holiday and on the celebrations of patron saints of Poland.

Father Rogalski organised the religious, social and cultural life of the local community. The church school in 1884 was attended by 29 children, who learned reading, writing, arithmetic, Polish, music and singing. There was also a reading room, well stocked with Polish magazines and books. Father Rogalski strove to unite Polish immigrants around Sevenhill and turn the area into "Little Poland"

The development and decline of the Polish colony in Sevenhill
In 1876 there was still an influx of Polish settlers in Australia. They came again from the Lubusz Land (municipalities of Zbąszynek and Babimost). Apart from the Sevenhill district, they also settled in Adelaide, Clare, Tanunda and Blyth. Over time, however, the number of new arrivals began to decline. South Australia itself had become less popular, giving way to the states of Victoria and New South Wales, where gold had been discovered. In June 1906 Fr. Leon Rogalski died and was buried among the religious brothers in the basement of the church in Sevenhill. Since then the Masses in Polish Hill River became less frequent and its Polish community started to forget the Polish language. In 1925 the school was shut down and in the early 1950s the St Stanislaus Kostka Church was closed and the building became a shop for local farmers. Over time the Polish community in Sevenhill and Hill River began to lose its national character, slowly assimilating into the Australian society. As recalled by Father Józef Janus, a Jesuit who came to Australia in the 1950s, at that time it was difficult to find anyone who spoke Polish. The fact that the Polish settlement survived for more than half a century is still a good result and the only such example on the Australian continent

Museum in Polish Hill River
A significant wave of Polish immigrants came to Australia after World War II. The remains of the church and school in Hill River aroused their interest and they decided to renovate and develop the premises. The works began in 1971. Representatives of the Polish community, organised in the Federation of Polish Organisations in South Australia (established in 1968) obtained the right to the land on which the church and school are situated, and acquired another few acres of adjoining land. In 1980 the renovated St Stanislaus Kostka Church was listed as a heritage site. Since 1988 it has officially housed the Polish Hill River Church Museum.

There are also other memorabilia of Polish settlers that can be found in Sevenhill. Apart from the above-mentioned painting from the St. Stanislaus Kostka Church and the grave of Fr. Rogalski, it is worth remembering the cemetery near the Jesuit monastery, where Polish names can be found on many graves.